Re: Trying to Get the Swiss to Talk

[David Farber <dave () farber net>]

________________________________________
From: Andrew C Burnette [acb () acb net]
Sent: Monday, March 31, 2008 9:20 AM
To: dewayne () warpspeed com
Cc: David Farber
Subject: Re: [IP] Trying to Get the Swiss to Talk

Now that's a good plan.

Rouse up a scare, and simply mine the data of all phone calls destined
for Switzerland (or limit scope to banking call centers), for connection
and call content (substitute any datacom/telecom mechanism here of course).

Brilliant. You can immediately identify which mice have cheeze hidden or
not, and where (which bank). And if you're fast enough, you can snag the
account numbers and access codes. Game over.

Wash, rinse, and repeat. You'll soon enough find mice to make it worth
any EU nation play the same game.

Alternatively, if you have evidence of an individual's tax evasion,
shouldn't be an issue to get a warrant on a particular subjects
communications.

Effectively, once in play, this game's end result is successful to
either collect the tax owed, or to deny the alleged evader access to
his/her stash of cash.

Regards,
andy

David Farber wrote:
> Begin forwarded message:
> From: dewayne () warpspeed com (Dewayne Hendricks)
> Date: March 29, 2008 10:09:08 PM EDT
> To: Dewayne-Net Technology List <xyzzy () warpspeed com>
> Subject: [Dewayne-Net] Trying to Get the Swiss to Talk
>
> March 29, 2008
> Trying to Get the Swiss to Talk
> By CARTER DOUGHERTY
> <http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/29/business/worldbusiness/29swiss.html?ex=1364443200&en=947a14d5ebf02aeb&ei=5090&partner=rssuserland&emc=rss&pagewanted=all>
>
>
> GENEVA — Like Paul Revere, Konrad Hummler sounded the alarm last week as
> he made his way by train and by plane to his bank’s branches across
> Switzerland. This country’s storied role as secret banker to the world’s
> wealthy is under threat like never before, Mr. Hummler warned.
>
> Mr. Hummler, the jaunty, blunt-spoken managing partner of Wegelin &
> Company, a small private bank in St. Gallen, has watched a German
> tax-evasion scandal evolve into a debate about banking secrecy here.
> Worried that the treasured discretion of Swiss banks is under assault,
> Wegelin’s foreign clients have been inquiring about their money.
>
> Mr. Hummler says that this time, Switzerland may not be able to stop the
> rest of the world from prying open Swiss banking.
>
> “What is going on is a power play,” he said. “It may be unusual in
> today’s Europe, but it is here.”
>
> This land of stunning Alpine vistas, which has chosen to remain outside
> the European Union, has always loomed large in the global imagination as
> the place where the wealthy stash their money beyond the tax man’s
> reach. The best estimates suggest that image is true, to the tune of $1
> trillion to $2 trillion.
>
> The scandal that threatens that lucrative business began when German
> authorities obtained secret financial data from Liechtenstein,
> Switzerland’s tiny neighbor with similar banking laws. The information
> in hand, investigators fanned out across Germany to seize documents
> thought to be related to tax evasion by hundreds of wealthy Germans.
> Cases are now being prepared based on the information, a process likely
> to take years. The fallout has claimed the job of one top executive,
> Klaus Zumwinkel, who had headed the German postal service, and has given
> the German left a political boost.
>
> But Switzerland is the bigger prize. And its continuing refusal to help
> other countries catch tax cheats hiding their money there appears to
> have hardened Europe’s resolve to force change.
>
> “If a car is stolen in Germany and taken to Switzerland, the Swiss help
> find it,” said Hans Eichel, a member of the German Parliament and a
> former finance minister. “But when it’s about tax evasion — and much
> larger sums — they do nothing. No one outside Switzerland understands
> that.”
>
> To Thomas Borer, a former Swiss ambassador to Germany, few inside
> Switzerland understand the depth of foreign discontent.
>
> “It is obvious,” said Mr. Borer, now a lobbyist, “the government and the
> banks, really, are heavily underestimating the impact of this scandal.”
>
> “There may be an avalanche coming, and we are not ready,” he added.
>
> Mr. Borer compares the coming storm to the debate Switzerland faced in
> the late 1990s over dormant bank accounts belonging to Holocaust victims
> and their families. When first faced with demands for restitution, Swiss
> banks dismissed the claims despite urgent warnings from some Swiss
> diplomats that the issue would not go away.
>
> After an international blowup that sullied their reputation, the banks
> settled the matter by creating a $1.25 billion restitution fund.
>
> [snip]
>
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